Now We are Six

This past week, Emily turned 6. Although this seems hard to believe, it is indeed true. We had a pretty laid back birthday celebration this year for a couple reasons.

1) We are going to Disneyland soon which she does not ( I repeat does NOT) know about yet because we thought it may raise unrealistic expectations for future birthdays. We're planning on telling her soon.

2) This was one of the craziest weeks our family has ever had (more stories to follow) and we decided that there was a good chance I would lose it completely if I had to pull off a big party in addition to everything else we had going on.

That being said, Emily still had a great birthday. She got to be the birthday girl at school

and share cupcakes with her friends,

which I wish I could say I made, but that would be a blatant lie. They were, nonetheless lovely and although I have never had a churro flavored cupcake before, it is an experience I hope to repeat in the future.

Where was I?

Oh, yes. I was able to pick Emily up after school (with the help of a generous boss who allowed me to work flex time this week and also with the help of Chris who had to take a bit of vacation time so Emily could still make it to school) and she then she helped me decorate her cake.

You'll notice it says "Happy Birthday, Emily P." After reading the Ramona books, she is rather taken with us using her last initial in all written references to her. You'll also notice there may have been some frosting sampling happening. But if you can't sample frosting on your birthday, when can you?

Following a dinner at Red Lobster (Yes, Emily is allergic to fish, but she insisted. She says she loves their chicken strips and that she wanted to see the lobsters in the tank. Weird.), we got to the real celebration which involved presents.

She saved the big box for last, but she already knew what it was. Still, she was delighted to have her theory confirmed.

I was afraid she wouldn't appreciate the doll, but so far, she has treated it as her most precious possession. She combs its hair and dresses it for special occasions. It's very cute and only mildly disturbing. I have to admit, it was kind of good to give her one big birthday present instead of a whole bunch of junk she'll just treat with indifference and eventually break or lose. 

She loved the doll so much she could hardly tear herself away for cake. But she did. 

Happy, Birthday, Emily P.! We love you!